Melanie, Your plant is Viola sororia f. Priceana, the Confederate violet. It is one of the variants of V. sororia, the sister violet (it goes by several other common names as well). The normal plant has violet-blue flowers, but there are white-flowered variants; and in a way yours is in-between. There are also reddish flowered ones, and a reddish equivalent of yours, called 'Alice Witter'. One of the most commonly grown cultivars is 'Freckles', which as white petals heavily marked with blue freckles. There are also cultivars with variegated leaves, eg. 'Binstead Speckles'. They are all tough and hardy plants, increasing well by seed and division (a lawn mower will do the trick!) So perhaps if you don't want them in your sod, hmmmmm They are not poisonous as such, and many types of violet have been used for medicinal and food purposes for a long time. But, to genealize, it would be safest to eat the leaves and flowers rather than seeds or roots. And as with most things - in moderation. If you want to use any violet as a foodplant, I strongly suggest you do further research (easier now you know what it is, eh?) Mike Here is a link that might be useful:

LOVE the idea of painting it light blue (check out BM polar ice #1660) was just looking at this color for a dresser I'm redoing. I got the inspiration from a pic another GW-er sent me, isnt this color divine, and I know these would look fab this way too. I'm going today to get this paint. Patty, can you tell me more about the best way to do the stain/antique technique, is it just a brush on and wipe off method that would work best?

I like the chair, do you ? Have it fixed if you do. It has clean simple lines leaning towards "mission style". Hard to say what kind of wood it is . It's safe to say it's not a quality wood,( oak, mahogany,walnut etc..) but don't let that disuade you from keeping it. Any skilled/qualified craftsman will ba able to repair those damaged areas. It requires fabricating a piece of wood to fit into each location . The seat is definately needlepoint based on the photos.It doesn't look to be worth saving, based on the two damaged areas. If the needlepoint wasn't damaged , you could have a ( qualified) upholstery cleaner clean it for you and it will look like new. As for putting money into it, you have to make that call.It's a double edged sword, if you have the repairs made, you should have it refinished, it will allow the refinisher to do a better job on the repairs as far as being able to work with the entire chair instead of having to work around the areas of the chair that will not be refinshed.

I'll not argue the last part of the prose is rather gooey. But that one struck me because I've heard family stories of what foods were a treat in hard times, and much of it wasn't what we'd consider a treat by a long shot. To clarify; wasn't saying a shoulder bowl is a milk bowl. Have never heard of shoulder bowl term myself, but was giving rjinga another phrase to search if she chooses since others use it. (W/apologies to amity, who already mentioned that & I missed it. I need sleep! ;) All I know is Grandma (b. 1896) for most of her life had a cow, milked it, got various dairy products, and well into the 40s dairy was stored in a cubby hole cut out of the wall in the cellar where a spring ran through. Her surviving kids (in their 80's) tell of spooning off cream and straining w/cheesecloth (for butter IIRC). They went without a lot and had to make do a lot. And the squat wide bowl Gramdma and family referenced as a milk bowl was much like the bowl I noted above, and I still have a few. That's what local auctioneers back home call them too. (Not uncommon to see some go for abt $100) And I really can't add much more. How many times can I say bowl in a post?